


Play a Real Hero

by CanIBeKing



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-11-12
Packaged: 2018-02-22 23:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2525159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanIBeKing/pseuds/CanIBeKing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We will fight. But you will not speak unless I say you can. They don’t know my past, I don’t know if I can tell them.” </p><p>What if Felicity isn't who she says she is and someone from her past brings up a truth that's probably best hidden?</p><p>All character's belong to CW.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The unexpected familiar footsteps

She knew about the footsteps approaching long before she acknowledged them. Everyone thought she was the ordinary, helpless, beacon of light; no one knew the truth. She figured it would be one of the teammates, she didn't know the truth.

“Long time no see, Ai” The voice that echoed off the foundry walls wasn't one she was unfamiliar with, but it wasn't one she had expected to hear.  
Her long avoided reactions came into play as she turned around to face the intruder.

“How did you get in?! Why are you here?!” she questioned with a menacing tone that no one from her current life had heard before.  
The intruder, her past, looked her up and down and smirked. He was surely wondering why she was dressed in such a colorful outfit. “What’s with the bright colors? I thought we preferred black.”

Felicity moved around the foundry with caution, making sure not to let the intruder out of her sight. It wasn't that she didn't trust Kuro, it was just that it had been too long. Too long for him to have found her.

Kuro rolled his eyes and approached her with slow steps, “you seriously aren't assessing the threat level right now, are you? I hadn't realized we were enemies.”

As Kuro reached forward to touch Felicity, she grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her back. She pinned him to the ground, resting her arm right against his throat. “Why are you here?” she growled.

The footsteps on the foundry stairs caused Felicity to lose focus and look up. A mistake that she never used to make before, a mistake that let Kuro get the upper hand and throw her off of him. He swiftly turned her around and held her against him, whispering in her ear, “You want to know why I’m here? If you fight me with full ambition and win, I’ll tell you.”

It was a difficult decision, if she fought, Oliver would find out the truth, if she didn't Kuro would get questioned by the teammates and they would still find out the truth. So for old times sake Felicity freed her arm and struck Damon in the face with her elbow. At least this way she could feel the satisfaction of fighting without acting powerless and holding back.

“We will fight. But you will not speak unless I say you can. They don’t know my past, I don’t know if I can tell them.” Felicity said as she rushed forward to land a punch on Kuro’s face.

With a crouch, Kuro ducked under Felicity’s arm and grabbed her bicep, and landed a knee to her stomach.  
Felicity moved back with the force but didn't let herself fall.

“HEY! WHAT IS GOING ON?! WHO ARE YOU?!” Yelled a voice at the end of the stairs.

Felicity looked his way and shot him a glare so cold that it froze Oliver in his tracks, “Not now Oliver. This is between us, stay out of it.”

Kuro’s head jerked back as Felicity turned around and landed a quick kick to his head. He felt the sharp pain go through his head and exit as he braced himself against the next hit.

Kuro lunged for Felicity, but she was moving around him in a flash. He clenched his teeth as he felt another hit from behind. This time he let himself move forward with the momentum. He rolled on the ground and moved to a crouching position. Grabbing a metal bar lying next to him, he swung out.

The bar connected against Felicity’s knee with a bright, vibrating pain. A quick stinging feeling against Kuro’s cheek let him know he had been cut. A force against Felicity’s side made her stumble back. And soon it was the constant clanking noises of the knife and bar hitting each other that echoed throughout the cave. Felicity met the hit with a flick of the wrist and pressed down on Kuro’s bar, hoping for just enough pressure to make him lose grip. Kuro stumbled back at the burst of energy, but used the space as an advantage to quickly do a complete turn and strike the heavy metal against pale flesh. Felicity this time found advantage at Kuro’s unprotected right side, the blade reflected the light from the bulbs hanging above just before it sliced against Kuro’s side with a sharp burning sensation. An elegant turn put Felicity behind Kuro where she inflicted a blow to the back of Kuro’s knee using her foot.

This time, unprepared, Kuro stumbled forward and fell on the ground. Felicity’s knife felt cold as ice against his neck as he tried not to struggle.  
“You know it ends here. If even you did try to pull a fast move, I would cut you. You know it, you know that I've won. So tell me why you’re here. RIGHT NOW.”

Kuro gave a bitter laugh before muttering, “It’s hard to talk when there is a knife putting pressure on my throat. You need to let me go, sweetie.”  
With a repulsed sound Felicity pushed herself away from Kuro.

“Who is he?” Oliver growled from behind Felicity.

Felicity took a deep breath as she remembered Oliver was in the foundry, “...Damon. I… we… well we know each other and… I’m not exactly sure how he found out about the… about us… about this place. He’s just about to explain.” She didn't say his real name, it would better to hide Kuro's identity, plus it would be hard to explain why he had a Japanese name, why they both had Japanese names.

Oliver took a menacing step toward Damon before saying in a tight voice, “You better start talking.”

Kuro arrogantly got up and rolled his shoulders, cracked his knuckles before sitting down on Felicity’s chair. Moving his arms to rest behind his head he started to talk. “Once upon a time ago, blah blah blah. Insert stuff Ai, oh sorry… Felicity says I can’t talk about. More blahs. Stuff happened, more stuff happened. And then… oh yes! Stuff happened, Felicity said ‘I want more out of my life’, she leaves me. Poor heartbroken me. I look for Felicity, I finally find her here. She is superheroes sidekick, I think ‘wow. Wanted more my ass. She’s exactly where she was a long time ago, except this time she’s demoted and basically left out while rich guy bangs everyone but her. But whatever, at least she’s somewhat not very, but sort of happy’ and then I find myself in shit when old contacts find me and now here I am begging my partner to give me another chance so I can save someone’s life. Please. Thank you.”

Felicity blinks her eyes at Kuro’s storytelling ways, which she admits she has missed, “So… that’s it?”

“NO!” Kuro says jumping up from the chair, “I forgot the last part of the story… it’s THE END! Yes that’s it. Goddamn. That’s pretty serious if you ask me! So please Ai, please leave this rich guy that bangs every girl but you. Please leave this guy that says he loves you, but goes ahead and bangs his ex and dates her right in front of you. Please come back. I need my partner. I know we both agreed that life was too much. But here you are again. And this time you’re being used. He doesn't treat you like the partner. I did. Please.”

“So… this is because I’m playing hero with someone else?” Felicity asks confused.

Kuro rolls his eyes, he feels exasperated. “No, this is because if you play hero you should play the real thing. This is because I’m being forced out of retirement but I’m not me without you. This is because those clothes aren't you. This is because I accept the fact that I can be two people at once. This is because I would never try to avoid being with you just so I could sleep with someone else. This is because it’s your life, your choice. This is because I know you've cried more in the last two years than you ever did when you were with me. This is because sometimes love isn't enough, it’s time you realize it. You've become exactly who you said you would never be, a weak girl who pines for the affection of a man who will lie to her just so she doesn't stop helping him.”

“You’re playing dirty. Exploiting my weakness.”

Kuro gave Felicity a grim smile, “I’m telling the truth. I didn't know that you hate hearing the truth. Is it one of those things that became reality for you when you started believing the Arrow’s lies?”

Felicity covered her ears and begged Kuro to stop. To stop talking, to stop hitting where it hurt the most. Everything he said was true, she knew it. “You can’t do this. You can’t come say this to me and expect me to help you. And if you knew the truth why didn't you come save me from myself? I thought we swore to protect each other.”

Kuro gave a weary look towards Oliver who was standing rigid, with hurting eyes. But at that moment, he didn't care about Oliver. He had been watching Felicity for months and he now he knew that he should have stepped in months ago to stop Felicity from getting hurt. As he gently held Felicity’s tensed hands in his he knew it would be difficult to convince her of anything. “I didn't step in because I wasn't thinking. I never think. I regret it, but now I have a solid reason for making you leave with me. Please take that reason. You can give me the cold shoulder and I can grovel when we’re where we are supposed to be.”

Felicity slipped her hands away from Kuro’s with a heavy heart. Her thoughts were running wild, causing a storm of emotions inside of her. It would be irrational to answer in anger or sadness, so she asked for time. She knew that Kuro would be easy to reach when she had made up her mind so he left, leaving a trail of fire and ash behind him.

“What was that?” Oliver spoke finally. Felicity hadn't even realized he was still in the room. It was hard to face him now, the weight of Damon’s words pressing down on them.

Felicity, the one that Oliver knew might have shed a fear tears by now, but the Ai that Damon recognized her as wasn't like that. She was a strong warrior, someone who had been caught up in the lies. She had let Oliver lead her on because he’s a charmer. He may not be Ollie in behavior, but he could never really stop using girls for his own selfish reasons. Felicity felt rage boil inside of her at that thought, she had let Oliver manipulate her into someone she’s not.

“That… believe it or not was an old friend slapping me with the truth. Everyone lies, including me. And lately I've been lying to myself. You've torn my heart out of my chest one too many times. You give me no reason to stay and yet I can’t leave you. You turned into weak Felicity but that’s not who I am. You’re happy with Laurel anyways, so I’m leaving you and this foundry. And if you ever need me… well just remember one thing, I needed you to love me but all you did was manipulate me. If you ever need my help, don’t call me, don’t text me, and don’t come looking for me. I’m done being the helpless nerd girl you regard me as. I’m not your pet. I’m pulling the plug on that relationship that was hanging on by life support. I’m standing here talking and I’m still hoping you will love me. Give me a reason to stay Oliver, tell me it’s my choice.” Felicity pleaded with her eyes.

Maybe the shock of the situation had caused Oliver to stay quiet for too long because when he came back to his senses Felicity was gone.


	2. Okay

His voice bounced across the rooftops, “I knew you would come.”

Felicity rolled her eyes and came to a stand in front of Kuro, “Maybe I’m just here to kill you.”

The silence that settled around them in the dark gloomy night by that statement was broken by Kuro’s booming laugh. “If that was the case… you wouldn’t have let me figure out you were here.”

Felicity sighed and clenched her fists. She hated that Kuro seemed to still understand her so well. A part of her didn’t want to listen to what he had to say. She stood rigid, not wanting to let Kuro channel into her emotions any more than he already had.

“Greg Osborne was murdered two nights ago.” Kuro stated, holding out a blue file.

Felicity flipped through it, quickly taking in the information. “Greg Osborne, former CIA. We caught him, right?” Kuro gave a short nod. “The drug trafficker. Why is his death so important to us? This was just a minor case. It took two days to solve.”

“The Yakuza murdered him… Someone went undercover to his cell, broke him out and a week later he was found dead. There were signs of torture.” Kuro replied.

“But… how do you know it was the Yakuza? I thought we eliminated the last of them years ago. After Akahara died no one was left to take over.”

Kuro shook his head in regret, “That’s where we went wrong. Niko took over. They pretended to disperse but they’ve been hiding in plain sight this whole time. They were afraid that Orpheus would take over.”

None of it made sense, why would Greg Osborne be attacked after such a long time? What did he know? Felicity wondered.

As if reading her thoughts Kuro answered, “I suspect it had something to do with the phone calls Osborne was receiving in prison. But that’s not the worst news… within hours of Osborne’s body being found one of our own went missing.”

Felicity eyed Kuro with a weary look, “one of our own? I didn't realize there was an ‘our’ anymore.”

Kuro handed Felicity another file and let her decided team or not for herself.

Would Felicity acknowledge them as a team? Or the better question is would Felicity decide to be his partner again? The shocked gasp brought Kuro out of his musing.

“Ed? How did he go missing?!” Felicity demanded to know.

“Simple case of I don’t know. He went to investigate a lead on Yakuza and never came back. That’s when I was contacted. So what do you say? Be my partner again?”

Kuro looked expectantly at Felicity and one word made his hopes fly.

 

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one is short because I didn't really know what to do with it. But alas, here it is.


	3. "Your Felicity?"

Oliver entered the lair late in the evening expecting Felicity to be there clicking away at her computers. The scene he was greeted with was a little bit different. No Felicity, instead a different body was seated on her chair. The sight made Oliver feel uncomfortable, like something unpleasant was happening.

“Dig… where is Felicity?” Oliver asked approaching the desk. 

Diggle sighed and stood up looking rather agitated, “I don’t know Oliver. Why don’t you tell me why she left this note stating that she was leaving the team?”  
Oliver snatched the note from Diggle’s hand at the speed of light and quickly skimmed through its contents. 

Oliver growled in frustration, “I bet it had something to do with that Damon. I should have put him down as soon as I saw him with my Felicity.” 

Of course the information left Diggle a little bit confused, but what really caught his attention made him crinkle his eyes and give Oliver a knowing look, “Your Felicity?”

Oliver felt exasperated, “Yes, my Felicity.” He moved towards his Arrow gear, “We are practically married, everyone says so anyways. But that is beside the point. He took her, I’m going to hunt him down.” 

Diggle stepped towards Oliver, “Who took her? What are you saying?”

“Damon took her.”

“And why did Damon take her?” At this point Diggle realized there was way more to the story than what Oliver was letting on.

 

“Because he came here and asked her to be his partner again and he told Felicity I’m a bad person. And then Felicity said I need to give her a reason to stay but I was too shocked. And then my Felicity left me. I bet after she left he kidnapped her or something. And I just want her back Dig. It’s not fair!”

Diggle raised an eyebrow at the speed of Oliver’s words and childish attitude, “Wow. If that’s going to be the behaviour of your kids, I hope I never have to babysit.”

Oliver snapped his neck towards Diggle and then got a goofy look on his face, “Felicity and I having kids… no. Focus Diggle!! Damon took Felicity! We need to track them down right now!”

At this point Diggle didn't know whether to laugh or to be annoyed with Oliver, “I never said you and Felicity. But what you’re telling me is that Felicity asked you to be with her and you didn't reply so she decided to give Damon a second chance?”

Oliver paused mid stride and Diggle could practically hear the gears shifting in Oliver’s head. The hesitant nod made Diggle shake his head.

“Good luck, man.”

Oliver was so screwed. Diggle’s shoulders shook with the rumble of his laugh as he made his way out of the foundry dialing Felicity’s number.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short too because I wanted to focus mainly on Oliver and his usual broody, childish self.
> 
> \- King


	4. Choshek

Felicity pulled on her smooth leather gloves, flexing her fingers to make them comfortable. On the other side of the room Kuro smirked, relishing the familiarity of the situation. The click of Felicity’s heels sounded like a familiar song for Damon, it felt like home.

“You ready to kick some ass, Ai?”

This time it was Felicity that smirked, “I was born ready babe.”

The same conversation that hadn’t been said in years bubbled up.

As they made their way out of the room, silence enveloped them until Damon shattered it. “So… Felicity? That’s a unique name…”

Felicity shook her head, “Not now. I’ll explain later.” It wasn’t the fact that the history behind the name was long, it was a rather short story. Felicity just didn’t feel like talking about it.

*

Kuro pulled out his shiny black revolver and grinned at Felicity.

“It’s not about taking them all down. It’s about the Intel and about sending a message. Don’t go crazy and kill them all.” Felicity reminded, pulling out her own gun.

They quietly tiptoed their way into the building. No gimmicks, no fancy bullshit. Just them. It was a game really, to see who would find the target and make him squeal first. Everything was fair game except for letting the target get away.

“See you on the other side, Felicity.” Kuro taunted.

Felicity scoffed and strutted off. It was all about how Kuro made her feel in times like these. Confident and powerful. She wasn’t the nerdy IT girl when she was with him. She was the brains in action.

As she went to round a corner she saw two men deep in conversation walking her way. She abruptly stepped back and leaped elegantly. The beam was low enough for her to grab and twist up to land at the top of the structure. For Felicity it had always been about the target, no one else mattered in this situation. She stealthily made her way towards the control room.

By the time that Kuro made it to the room, Felicity had already tied and gagged the target.

“Too late, babe.” Felicity taunted, “If you hadn’t stopped to play with all the other kids you could’ve gotten here first.”

That’s where Kuro had always lost. He spent too much time enjoying the chase. Taking down all the thugs on his way in.

*

“Hey. On the plus side, I only knocked them out. I didn’t kill them.” Kuro replied effortlessly throwing the man over his shoulder.

Felicity laughed and made her way out of the room followed by Kuro, “At least we don’t have to worry about fighting our way out.”

Obviously that was spoken to soon, as a man ran towards them with a wild look in his eye.  
Kuro raised his eyebrow at Felicity, amusement clear in his eyes. Felicity raised her gun and shot the man point blank in between his eyes. “Now we don’t have anyone to worry about.”

“Are you sure we can’t set the building on fire? No one will miss these people anyways,” Kuro questioned as they made their way out of the room.  
Felicity shrugged at the suggestion, “It would make a statement, but we need them to spread the news that we are back. They can’t do it if they are dead.”

*

“Good morning, Sunshine” Kuro sing songed as the Yakuza member opened his eyes.

“Anata wa dare desu ka?” the man asked groggily.

Damon smiled a wolfish grin, “Choshek.”

The man’s eyes widened in realization. “No…No… I thought you disappeared. People said you died.” His head fell in defeat and horror.

Felicity grabbed his hair and snapped his head up, the wild look in his eyes screamed terror, “Surprise motherfucker. Now you get to deal with us, are you ready?”

The man shook with fear, he thrashed his limbs trying to get out of the chair.

“Not yet. Ed Rockwell. Where is he?!” Felicity demanded

The man chuckled in pain and amusement. “Don’t you mean Ed Raymond? How long did you think you could hide? You thought you defeated us, but the Yakuza are invincible. You think you are so smart. I’ll tell you where he is but you will only find his corpse. That is the fun in this situation.”

Surprisingly the man muttered out the address to where Ed was being held captive. But his laugh resonated and taunted and hurt. It was a series of quick shallow stabs in the heart for Felicity. She felt the panic bubbling up at the graphic image that was playing in her head, Ed dying.

She launched for the man and squeezed his throat, “Kurayami wa anata o shōhi shimasu.”

*****  
"Anata wa dare desu ka?" - Who are you?  
Choshek - Hebrew word for Darkness or Obscurity  
"Kurayami wa anata o shōhi shimasu" - The darkness will consume you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheated on the translations, QQ.  
> Hopefully it is okay, but if anyone knows the proper way to say the Japanese phrases please help me ^.^
> 
> So if you happened to notice, I changed names. Felicity's past name is now "Ai" instead of "Diana" (Ai is Japanese for sadness, and i thought it was fitting because the Yakuza are Japanese and Felicity means Happiness. I'm just trying to tie everything together).   
> Also, Damon's past name is "Kuro" (The Japanese word for the colour black, also meaning Darkness) Felicity addresses him as Damon in front of Oliver because that is his present name.  
> NEITHER FELICITY OR DAMON ARE JAPANESE. Like I said, I'm just trying to tie the story together.
> 
> This chapter has no Oliver, I'm sorry :(  
> Basically what I wanted to show is that Felicity is two different people, Oliver's Felicity and Damon's Ai.  
> Also, if you pick up on it, Damon doesn't reassure Felicity, he doesn't try to "be there" for her after she does the unthinkable, he suppresses the light in her and fills her with darkness; Felicity is Oliver's light, so she tries to be a lighter person with him.  
> I think my basic idea for this story is to take it into a Felicity (Happiness) vs. Ai (Sadness) perspective.


	5. Who Are We?

Felicity and Damon… correction, Ai and Kuro sat on the too soft couch drinking beer. It wasn’t a friends drinking to celebrate drink, it was more of an “our lives are so fucked up, what the fuck do we do?” type of drink. 

“My name is Felicity because it’s the opposite of Ai.” Felicity mumbled, taking a quick sip of her beer, “I don’t want to be sadness anymore, I want to be someone’s happy story. I want to be someone’s light in the dark, someone’s… someone’s saviour.” 

Damon nodded in understanding, “I get you. My name is Damon because it’s Greek for Gentle. I don’t want to be rough killer anymore. I want to be a gentle person that helps.”

“I love Oliver, but he will never love me back. He has a thing for strong girls… which I am but I’m not the type of strong girl that he finds appealing. He likes good looking girls. And I’m not his happiness, Laurel is his happiness.”

“You’re gorgeous. Oliver is stupid. I love this girl too, but she’s into those sensitive and gentle types. Which I am, but not really. I’m the psychotic killer who doesn’t know how to be emotional. She likes this guy who is really nice, but he’s stupid. Everyone is stupid. I’m stupid.”

The booming knock on the door halted their story time. Felicity shuffled towards the door to open it. She threw the door open and there standing at the doorway was Oliver with his hand fisted to knock and Diggle with a hand on Oliver’s shoulder, as if restraining him. 

Oliver looked Felicity up and down and managed to give her a weak smile. 

“Stupid Oliver!” Damon shouted moving towards the door. 

Oliver furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Damon with a judgmental glare so strong that it should’ve caused Damon to faint. 

“Felicity. Can we talk?” Oliver asked, pointedly ignoring Damon’s grumbling in the background. 

Felicity still felt powerless in front of Oliver’s sad kicked puppy look, ushering them inside before swinging the door shut. 

He looked like he hadn’t slept in a while and there seemed to be hysteria swimming in his eyes.

Felicity and Damon slumped down on the couch at the same time. Oliver and Diggle on the other hand cautiously sat down looking rather out of place.   
“I need to know the truth. What are you two doing? Who are you?”

Felicity and Damon exchanged a quick worried look before nodded simultaneously. Felicity's heart told her she could always trust Oliver, the same way he always trusted her.

“Who are we? Choshek. Or in English, Obscurity. We were spies who worked internationally.” Damon said.

Felicity continued, wanting to offer more explanation, “My realish name is Ai, I had a name before that but I have long forgotten it. Ai means sadness, opposite of Felicity. And this is Kuro, the name means Darkness.”

Oliver looked between the two. A thousand thoughts raced through his head, but one caused his brain to slow down. Weren’t their names Japanese?

“Yes. Ai and Kuro are Japanese names. We are not Japanese in the true sense, both born here in America. We were very young when the Yakuza saved and trained us. The Yakuza are Japanese warriors, a group of people that once terrorized the streets.” Damon replied, and it was only then that Oliver realized he had voiced his thoughts out loud. 

Felicity spoke up at that moment, “They saved our lives but they also took away parts of us. We didn’t realize that what they were doing was wrong until we were in our teens. Once we got into college we hacked into the Yakuza’s accounts and took money. It was blood money but we needed it to escape. We remained in school but did everything online, hoping to remain in the darkness, out of Yakuza’s eyes. For so long we had been killers for the Yakuza that we needed to fix our wrongs. Kuro and I were both Jewish before the Yakuza took us in. We adopted the name Choshek, and did evil things in the name of good.” 

“So what happened to the Yakuza?” Diggle asked, looked rather intrigued.

Felicity let out a bitter chuckle, “They let us finish school, hoping we would change our minds. And then they came after us so we murdered as many of them as we could.” 

Oliver’s eyes widened in shock as his brain attempted to grasp at the information that Felicity had provided. It felt like he was flailing, grasping for purchase mid drop from the top of a building. As he looked at Felicity he felt like he could no longer recognize her, his mind had seemed to hide her behind a black shadow of confusion.   
Felicity.

Her name wasn’t even really Felicity.

Who was she?

Why was she here?

Thoughts thundered through Oliver’s brain and he couldn’t grab a hold of the answer to a single one of the question. 

Felicity had seemed to have channeled into Oliver’s turmoil because the next thing he heard was Felicity desperately calling his name. 

“Oliver, look at me.” Felicity was kneeling before him on the cold hard floor. She tenderly cupped his cheek with her warm soft hands and forced him to gaze into his shining eyes. Eyes that were filled with worry and fear. Oliver’s own eyes were a storm before the calm.

He looked her dead in the eyes and asked the only thing that mattered to him, in a way that announced that the answer to the question would give him a reason to keep on living.

“Are you even my Felicity?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, like I said in the last chapter's notes, I'm slowly tying everything together.
> 
> This chapter has Oliver. All hail the ship.
> 
> Again, the names have been changed and this chapter explains why.
> 
> \- King

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic, please be gentle with the criticism.
> 
> I don't really know where I'm going with this story it just sort of happened.


End file.
